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>> Tuesday, August 1, 2006

This month we'll start with a new series to give the CD-i some promoting activities especially for those stucking with Nintendo, Sega and Atari from the good old days. Loads of you feel the CD-i was a bad console with bad games and stuff, I'm not here to make you think otherwise although I'll try to gain a little perspective of the good things CD-i has to offer.

The potential of a home console often relies on its exclusive releases, right? You bought a SNES because it had Mario and Zelda; You bought a Playstation because that was the only way to play Gran Turismo, and now you'll buy the XBOX 360 because of the rumoured exclusive GTA 4. With CD-i on the background for most game-fans, its title library is relatively small and most of the games are based on ports from other versions. Considering the power of CD-i, you can imagine most CD-i conversions are not the best versions around when they also had a chance on SNES or Mega Drive, like Flashback, Micro Machines, or even Lemmings. While CD-i didn't have its own mascotte like what Mario means to Nintendo and Sonic to Sega, it'll surprise you how many exclusive CD-i releases Philips actually put through in the life of CD-i. And I'm not even talking about all Philips Media games because they also ported a lot of titles to PC CD-ROM as well. No, this is only about CD-i games. Games you'll never find anywhere else. A top-10 of exclusives.
I was thinking about a countdown from 10 to 1, 1 being the best in my opinion. Starting with 10, and one extra count every couple of days. It's holiday-time mind you :) - Let's go!

10. Ultra CD-i Soccer

Just when you thought CD-i was dead in 1997 (which partly, it certainly was) Krisalis released a secret project on CD-i which came as a surprise to almost everyone. It was a soccer game for all the fans wanting a lot more after Rage's Striker Pro game in 1993. While Striker Pro was a conversion of the Striker series Rage developed for several consoles, Ultra CD-i Soccer is an original attempt highly inspired by the popular Sensible Soccer franchise. Even the CD-i Magazine didn't feature any preview of this, but ofcourse they were appreciative like nobody else about some great soccer moments you can have with this one. Like with Sensible Soccer, you'll either love CD-i Soccer or hate it. The players on screen are quite small to let the widest part of the field fit onto the screen, the game is seen from above, offering a 2D perspective (you know CD-i would never be capable showing off a 3D game of this kind). Personally, I find Striker Pro the best of the two, with highly enjoyable animations and great humour like players singing 'My Way' in the middle of the screen after scoring the wrong goal - circumstances I still have to find out by the way!!. CD-i Soccer, however, is an enjoyable experience but very hard, the controls are not really responsive (especially not when you're used to Striker Pro), but the field is more detailed even with the smaller players.

Cons: unresponsive controls, occasionally slowdown when a lot of action is on screen.

9-a. Link: The Faces of Evil9-b. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

These days the good old Animation Magic titles are hot off the press again
featuring articles in Zeldapower and RetroGamer magazine. The Nintendo
license still attracts a lot of attention from foreign console fans and it
certainly is one of the main aspects why CD-i hits the spot these days.
These two games are built on the same engine and were, like with Philips
projects topping the budget of $1 million, split in two to gain more profit
out of them. Link and Zelda were released simultaneously and were the first
titles featuring Nintendo characters on CD-i, after the initial press
release AIM presented to use Nintendo characters as a revenge strategy to
Nintendo's procedures. If you're interested in the background of Nintendo
on CD-i, check out the blog of March 2006.
Recently the artist was tracked down by Zeldapower, check out his blog to
enjoy the full-colour background art he created, highly recommended.

Cons: Typical mediocre animation, repetitive gameplay, it is brought as a
platformer which feels not right when you expect a Zelda game.

8. Christmas Country

Often confused with Christmas Crisis, Creative Media really put all their
acts together to fill the gap Super Mario's Wacky Worlds left when it was
cancelled on CD-i. Christmas Country is a highly enjoyable platformer, and
the first of its kind resembling a real Super Mario game. True, the
mechanics and the engine are a bit simplified would you like to compare it
with, say, SMB, but the overall feeling is highly worked out and
fine-tuned. The limitations of the CD-i hardware are visible as no
background music was added to the levels because it would chop the
framerate too much. However a remake was initiated with 'The Lost Levels',
the CD-i was over before they finished it. Read through the December blog
for detailed info about this title and don't forget the original CD-i
magazines you can download at www.philipscdi.com. If you want a platform
game and already played The Apprentice, this will be your next bet. Nice
level design, super smooth engine and definately an improvement over
Christmas Crisis, a title they were also responsible for in 1995.

Pros: Great platformer, colourful graphics, lots of secrets and levels to
explore.

Cons: Too easy, no in-game music, engine is very basic.

7. Plunderball

One of Devin`s personal favourites I believe, Plunderball wasn't even a
retail game. The game was "released" in 2003 by Oldergames Publishing after
retrieving the prototype software. It was developed in 199x by ISG
Productions which is the same company behind Video Speedway and Tox Runner
(also unreleased). From all retrieved proto software on CD-i, Plunderball
is called to be the most finished and original CD-i game. Here's a recent piece of Devin's perspective about Plunderball. Now, It still is no pinball Dreams by any means but regarding the technical limitations of the CD-i I'm convinced ISG did a pretty good job developing a Pinball game on CD-i the way it should be. With the high amount of video material and the essence of the story behind it, this title would top the rest easily if they would have used digital video using the cartridge for it. But there a lot of games on CD-i that would be a lot better only if they would have used the DVC. Still, the game is enjoyable to play, but the gameplay is a little limited.

Zenith is called 'spin ball' on several websites, a blend between 'Marble
Madness' and pinball. While it's not an official name by any means, it does
describe the kind of game we're dealing with here. Also covered in one the
previous blogs, Zenith would win the originality award on CD-i easily.
While the game is pretty short (it has only got six levels to play with),
the variety is increasing causing a more difficult play-field to go through
with your ball. There are all kinds of traps built in to get your ball out
of the main course, including secret buttons, lava, warps, and keys. The
thing is, you control a ball which is bouncing up and down, through a
vertically scrolled 3D landscape, which result in pretty neat graphics for
CD-i without the use of the Digital Video Cartridge. The game is very fast
and very responsive. It's just highly enjoyable and I recommend this one to
almost everyone to check out. If only they would have got the opportunity
to create a multiplayer or online version from this, that would be
awesome!!

Pros: Great concept, straight to the point arcade; fast game with good
graphics;

Cons: gameplay is a little repetitive; no in-game music, presentation is a
little rushed.

5. Hotel Mario

The only Nintendo licensed CD-i game produced by Philips internally. Also
not important, this is the only Mario title that was released for CD-i.
While it's not an original platform adventure like we all have hoped for,
Philips' Fantasy Factory developed a highly original puzzle game starring
Mario and all his famous enemies like Koopa and Bowser, not to forget the
original power-ups like Fire Mario and the invincibility star. If you grew
up with Super Mario this will all sound very familiar, you will love this
title. Now, the game is about closing doors in an hotel Mario steps in. The
enemies on screen are also able to open doors, and you use elevators to
change floors. All the action in one level is on one screen. OK, I'll admit
it is still a Mario game on CD-i, which has a few small consequences. Like
the framerate on one hand is a little lower, especially when a lot of
enemies are on screen. If you are willing to forget this as an issue, it's
a classic which has the Nintendo flavour all over it. In fact, if I had to
call one title to resemble the most with an original Nintendo title, this
would be the winner.

Pros: Super Mario!

Cons: You can't help thinking about a real platform game this could be.
Late levels can be frustating (stupid enemies opening doors right before
time limit).

4. Zelda's Adventure

With a potential of 12 titles set for CD-i release at the start, producer
Viridis only put through two of them to the market. Fortunately most bets
were placed on Zelda, which took years for them to complete. The final
package is the only real Zelda game to consider on CD-i, Tolemac (Not
surprisingly, the original Camelot spelled backwards) and Ganon included.
The game is fairly large, and will get pretty difficult once you get passed
the first shrines. Scrolling issues are visible from the very start, the
gameplay is limited to what's visible on screen. Once you enter a side, the
next screen is loaded, which means a three second break. These are only
minor issues I had with the game, and overall this is a very nice adventure
game with a lot of action. I really wish we had more games like this. Like
the other Zelda games on NES and SNES, you have to complete dungeons to
move along and find the evil Ganondorf. In Zelda's Adventure, you play the
main character as Zelda instead of Link and the dungeons are called
'shrines'. The photo-realistic environment differs a lot from the original
Zelda games, but the amount of detail it creates with it only make this a
good thing in my opinion.

Pros: excellent Action Adventure with a few RPG elements. Unequaled on
CD-i.

Cons: Later enemies can only be killed with one specific weapon. Out of a
large list this can be quite a task to find out, which makes it frustrating
from time to time. You can't (and shouldn't) compare it with other Zelda
titles on Nintendo consoles. One other con: Because of the Nintendo theme
the title is very rare and expensive...

3. The Apprentice

The all-time CD-i classic, this platformer starring Marvin would be
nominated on the first place when you want to give CD-i a mascotte. In
fact, once you have played the marvelous gameplay of this game you'll want
to know all titles producer SPC Vision produced for CD-i. Seen as CD-i's
most productive 3rd party developer, SPC Vision crammed the disc full with
secrets, platform levels and oh-so colourfull graphics in a very cute anime
style. This title is not to be missed, and I'm proud of the fact this is
developed in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, however you would believe
otherwise with its japanese influences all over it. Platforming at its very
best, Marvin is equiped with different weapons every world he enters. From
toyrooms, ice-cages and pipes to an aquarium and all the big big bosses,
this is fun-packed like no other CD-i game.

Cons: I only dislike the fact the game is a vertical scroller; probably
done because of the technical scrolling problems CD-i had. They tried to
fix this in Lucky Luke, another SPC platform game. Lucky Luke is also a
very fun patformer, but doesn't surpass the qualities of The Apprentice.

2. Lost Ride

The very last exclusive CD-i game (along with the Golden Oldies releases)
with the most promising technique CD-i had to offer with MPEG: Seamless
branching. Titles like Kathy Smith Personal Trainer, The Philips
Encyclopedia and Dead End all used the technique in its engine. While the
seamless branching isn't noticable in the first two mentioned, The Lost
Ride is the same kind of game like Dead End only with a different setting:
A roller coaster. Three worlds are offered including Mine-world and
Water-world, with great graphics and a very accurate gameplay.
Unfortunately, the game was rushed onto the market, some bugs are still
left in the game which makes the compatibility with some CD-i players low.
The title may crash at random moments, especially on the newer 4xx models.
Also very unique is the level map which is automatically generated at the
start of the game, this means you never play the same level again, the
mazes are created randomly which gives the title an enormous replay value.
You can read more in-depth information in the last BLOG.

One of the most remarkable releases on CD-i came in 1997. The first and
only realtime semi-3D First Person Shooter, something CD-i had never seen
before. The most remarkable thing is that the engine was produced not by a
real software company, but by Philips Research Laboratories in Redhill as
one of a side project they were working on. Dedicated to the spirit of ADS,
unfortunately gone by the day it was released, but with an enormous
encoding help Dorking (just at the westside of Redhill, the base of Philips
ADS) offered as always. Sceptically received by fans who were used to the
quality of Doom, this was only really appreciated by CD-i fans. We're
talking about low-res graphics (think about Catacomb Abyss) but with a much
higher quality animation and speed. The framerate was very fluid and only
dropped in large areas and when a lot of enemies were on screen. But when
you are a CD-i fan, this was still an amazing title. The game is divided in
20 levels, with 4 areas (desert, ocean, swamp and high-tech) to play in.
The soundtrack is very good with up-beat computer music, suiting perfectly
to the game.

Welcome to CD-i!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Interactive Dreams. You've just come to a warmhearted place all dedicated to the Philips CD-i. With attention to detail and quality, 2015 should see the rise of CD-i as a Retrogaming platform. For many CD-i has gone as a relative obscurity had it not been for the intervention of websites like The Black Moon Project and Interactive Dreams. Hopefully we're doing our bit to set the record straight along with all the other great CD-i projects.

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Do you have tips on what to post about CD-i? Can you help us with screenshots, videos or reviews? We'd love it when you share it with us! Please email us at interactive [dot] dreams [at] gmail [dot] com, thanks in advance!